The Russian government has tasked the Finance Ministry to consider reduction of gasoline excises by $49 per tonne for gasoline and $32.7 per tonnes for diesel fuel

MOSCOW, May 23. /TASS/. The Russian government instructed the Ministry of Finance to work on the issue of reducing excise duties on gasoline by 3,000 rubles ($48.9) per tonnes and 2,000 rubles ($32.6) per tonne per diesel fuel. The measure will restrict growth of prices on the domestic market of Russia, Head of the department of fuel and energy complex at the Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) Dmitry Makhonin told TASS.

"Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak has made a decision to reduce excises by 3,000 rubles per tonne for gasoline and 2,000 for diesel. Following the results of the meeting, the Ministry of Finance was instructed to agree with the position of the Federal Antimonopoly Service and the Ministry of Energy on reducing the excise duties before July 1," he said.

Dmitry Kozak’s press service confirmed the information to TASS.

The reason for such discussions in the government was growth of prices for gasoline in Russia, which was observed since the beginning of the year.

FAS accused oil companies of rising prices, for which, according to the service, itis more profitable to export gasoline and diesel fuel than to sell it on the domestic market. FAS proposed to increase the norms of sales of petroleum products at the exchange for normalizing prices - the mandatory volume of sales of gasoline from 10% to 15% of the total production in Russia, and diesel fuel - from 5% to 7.5%.

Head of FAS Igor Artemyev also said that because of rising oil prices, it is possible that gasoline prices in Russia might surpass than inflation. He noted that in such a situation it would be necessary to reduce excise duties.